


Lure

by rudbeckia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: First Time, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Mild Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 10:48:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Kylo Ren, the name only days old, is sent on a mission by Snoke. When he arrives at the planet where he is to be tested, he meets an angry redhead with a mission of his own.But what exactlyisKylo’s mission, and will he succeed?





	Lure

Kylo Ren leaps off the troop transport as soon as the ramp kisses the ground of the clearing and bounds away between the trees as it soars back up into orbit. His orders ring in his ear as if Snoke himself is reminding him of the importance of this first mission. All he knows is that he is to face whatever he finds on this planet in the Unknown Regions, possibly Snoke’s own planet of origin, although a warning against idle speculation buzzes quietly and insistently in his head.

_You are to prove yourself capable of taking power from the strength of others, boy._

And the presence is gone. Kylo feels its absence acutely and he has to stop for a few seconds to centre himself. When he recovers, he pushes down the petulant thought that he has already proved himself by destroying the Jedi school and crushing Skywalker’s hopes with it. Kylo takes a deep breath. It wasn’t enough. Obviously. But this mission will prove beyond doubt that he is worthy of Snoke’s teachings.

As his mind clears, Kylo senses another presence nearby, hot and angry like an inferno in the cold, dank forest. _This is it!_ he thinks. _This is my challenge._ He clasps the hilt of his lightsaber and, after another moment of feeling through the force for the Fury’s location, he sets off.

What he finds waiting in a clearing formed by a fallen tree, saplings almost visibly rushing skyward to claim the canopy, is not the ravening beast he expects. There’s only a slender, stiff-backed man in a grey uniform, glaring at him. “I am to begin your training,” the redhead snaps. “Leader Snoke chose me for this himself. You’re late.”  
Kylo looks around. It’s getting dark and there is no one else here. He can feel the absence of higher sentience amongst the wildlife thriving on the planet and he can feel the wildness: the desperate struggle for survival that will make some of the creatures dangerous. “We need to find a safe shelter,” Kylo says with as much authority as he can muster.  
The redhead glares at him. “I am the commanding officer on this mission and you are in my care.”

Kylo laughs at the indignation in the clipped voice. He shrugs. “What do you recommend?”  
“Well then.” The redhead sighs and seems to deflate. His tone loses some of its edge. “Obviously we need to find shelter. I heard some creature growling when I landed.”  
“You have a ship?” Kylo looks around. Perhaps this exercise will be over quickly.  
“No. Snoke ordered my pilot to return to base.”  
“Then,” Kylo says, pulling every ounce of sarcasm he can find into his voice, “we need to move before it’s too dark to see where we are going.”  
“This way,” the redhead says, already walking. “I flew over an abandoned settlement. We may be able to defend one of the buildings.”

Kylo follows the redhead’s back, rubbing fatigue from his face as soon as he is unobserved. The hot flare of fury has abated but he still senses the man’s annoyance and it amuses him. Through the force, he keeps a lookout for anything scared or hungry within striking distance. A few consciousnesses slip in and out of range and there is definitely something following them out of curiosity rather than hunger, but nothing feels like an imminent threat.

They reach the remains of a small village, really just a cluster of huts around a central clearing, when it is almost fully dark. A dense fog deadens their voices eerily. Redhead draws a blaster and walks towards the closest building. “I will find us an unoccupied dwelling for the night,” he says.  
Kylo shakes his head and points at another house. “That one’s empty,” he says. Then he points to the one the redhead was about to enter. “Something is asleep in there. I’d leave it alone if I were you.”  
“You can’t possibly know that,” the man says. But as he approaches the doorway the creature inside snarls and he backs away. “How did you know?” he whispers.  
“I can feel it,” Kylo says. “It’s not dangerous. It just wants to be left alone.”  
“Fine.“ The redhead glares, a faint glow reflecting from his eyes. “That one?” he points. “You’re sure?”  
Kylo nods. As they walk towards it, Kylo is sure he hears footsteps behind him. He grabs the hilt of his lightsaber and turns, igniting it with a hiss, but there is nothing to be seen through the milky fog. The redhead scoffs. “Jumpy, are we? Afraid of a shadow?”  
“Not a shadow,” Kylo says quietly. “Keep your eyes open. We are not alone here.”

They slip inside the narrow door. The building is not empty, but its last resident won’t be bothering them. The redhead watches in awe as Kylo concentrates, raises his arm, and the desiccated heap of partially articulated bones that click-clack together when disturbed levitates, along with barely-attached shreds of scruffy hide, and floats out into the clearing that the squat, solid buildings all border.  
“Who are you?” the man asks, words rushing out.  
“Kylo Ren,” Kylo says.  
“And _what_ the Sith are you, Kylo Ren?” Kylo knows he’s trying to disguise fear as anger.  
“Not Sith,” he says. “I was supposed to be a Jedi. Didn’t work out. What are you, Red?”  
The man grits his teeth. “I am Captain Hux. You may call me Sir.”  
Kylo can’t help his giggle as Hux’s anger spikes again and he wonders what it will take to provoke an outburst. “Like hell I will!”  
Hux glares, clenches his fists, and is silent for a few seconds. The anger retreats. He blows out a puff of breath. “I am here to initiate your training. I am your superior officer, CADET Ren.”  
“No,” Kylo says, shaking his head. “You have been misinformed. I’m not a cadet, I am Snoke’s apprentice. I don’t need you or your training. In fact, without me you’d’ve been eaten by something even more stupid than you are by now.”  
“How dare—”

_Ah, there it is. The fury._ Kylo raises his hand. He relishes the shock in Hux’s face as the air settles like the pearly fog in his paralysed lungs. “Accept that I am in charge here and I will let you go,” Kylo says. He knows Hux has no choice but he admires the way the man waits until he is on the cusp of unconsciousness before giving in.

“Right,” Kylo says when Hux drops to his knees, massaging his throat, coughing and sucking in air. “We need a fire to keep any other creatures from trying to set up home in this hovel.” Kylo points to the archway that leads to the next room. “See if there’s anything we can use as firewood.” Reluctantly, Hux takes his torch and goes through the arch. Kylo grins. “I can feel you thinking about putting a blaster bolt in my chest,” he calls though. “Try it. See what I can do with reflected plasma. Then Snoke will kill you for it if I miss.”  
He feels Hux’s confidence crumble. There’s a shift in the force around him as Hux changes his approach. “I believe we got off on the wrong foot,” Hux says, coming back into the main room with an armful of what looks like broken furniture. Kylo wants to sneer, but he feels the struggle inside Hux and decides not to antagonise him any further for now.  
“I believe we did,” he says after a few seconds. “I have no idea why Snoke thought you could train me.”  
“Discipline, I assumed,” Hux says. “I see that was an error—you are undisciplined and beyond hope of remedial action. Perhaps he’s punishing me for something.”

Something in Hux slips and Kylo senses that Hux genuinely believes he is being punished. Uncertainty. Weakness, even, wadded down and weighted with layers of bravado.  
Loneliness.  
Fear.

It’s gone in a flash but Kylo reels from the intensity of the emotions Hux is hiding. He takes the firewood from Hux and sends him to find more. When Hux returns there is a warm orange-yellow flicker painting the walls and Kylo is sitting on the compacted earth floor. He’s exhausted physically from the journey and mentally from the trauma of the last few days. He wants to sleep but doesn’t know if he can. Hux is watching him, hand near his blaster, waiting.

“I’m not going to choke you again unless you threaten me,” Kylo says. Hux sighs and unclips his blaster. He puts it down two paces away then sits beside Kylo.  
“Better?” he asks.  
“Yes,” Kylo replies. “If we are to survive and find out why Snoke sent us here to torment each other, we need to establish some level of trust.”  
Hux emits a deep sigh. “You seem to think that only means that you have to make me unable to defend myself. What about giving me reasons to trust you?”  
“Since you can’t stop me using the force, you will have to take me at my word,” Kylo says.  
“Well isn’t that just karking wonderful,” Hux snaps. “You have all the power and I have no choice.”  
“Good,” Kylo says with a nod at Hux. “You understand.”

Hux sits with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms around them. Kylo is cross-legged with his hands on his thighs. He can’t resist showing off a little by floating more firewood onto the flames when they start to die down. He frowns when he does it and spends a minute wondering why he wants to impress this jumped-up snippy boy-scout with force tricks. As a distraction, he tells Hux to find more firewood because what they have won’t last until morning and the night will be cold.  
“I brought all there was,” Hux replies. “If the force can’t find us any more then you can stop showing off because your party tricks are of no use.”  
Kylo feels his face warm from more than the dwindling flames. “Fine,” he grumbles. “We’ll stay warm some other way.”  
“Like what?” Hux says, irritation bubbling up. “We have nothing, Ren.”

Kylo ignores the question and tries to reach out with the force to search for disturbances, creatures intent on harm, mostly as an exercise in self-discipline. It fails when Hux lets his guard down again just for a few seconds, his fear and uncertainty seep into Kylo’s awareness. Kylo huffs and gets up to stretch and pace the room. Hux stays where he is, curled up small. When Kylo looks out of their shelter, his breath condenses in pale clouds and his skin feels the tingle of cold. He shivers and he’s about to retreat to the relative warmth of the room when his skin prickles and his hairs stand up.

Something moves.

Not even a shape, just a dark swirl in the fog that shouldn’t be there. Hux looks up, annoyed. “It’s cold enough without you letting warmth out,” he grouses. Distracted by the complaint, Kylo loses his sense of their surroundings. He sighs, irritated.  
“I was concentrating. There’s something out there and I can’t see what it is.”  
“Well of course you can’t. It’s dark.”  
Hux pokes the fire and sends a few embers scattering. Kylo kicks them back into the blaze. He looks at Hux properly: tall but slender, space-pale and therefore probably used to the steady environmental temperature of a starship. The firelight makes his hair seem to glow and Kylo stares at it for a full minute. He’s used to cold nights and temperate days in his hut at his uncle’s school. The thought gives him a stab of anguish that he quickly disguises.  
“Here,” he says, sitting behind Hux. “Relax. Let me—”  
“What the kriff!” Hux scoots forwards.  
“Suit yourself,” Kylo says. “Freeze if you want.” But he moves closer again, slowly. “I won’t hurt you again as long as you’re not planning to hurt me,” he says. “You’re cold, and you’ll get colder once the fire dies.”  
“As you can see, the fire is not dead.”  
Hux leans away from Kylo. Kylo shrugs and closes his eyes, prepares to search one more time for whatever is lurking outside. Hux ignores him and stares into the flames.

There is darkness here. Kylo feels his consciousness drawn up and out, away from the precarious, warm security of their shelter and into the cold, uncaring currents of the force. He lets himself flow with it, drifting where it wants, sensing the small bright sparks of living things that surround them. Shifting, sliding in and out of his senses, there is something else. Something old, passing over the bright sparks and dimming them. Some brighten again. Others do not.

Kylo observes its progress around the clearing, in and out of the buildings, passing in front of this one they have claimed as theirs and pausing before moving on. He feels the hungry exhaustion of the sleeping creature in the hut Hux intended to enter first, and he feels its already faint glow in the force go out like a candle in a jar. The presence circles the settlement again and Kylo shivers despite the dry heat from the fire. A flash of understanding has him reeling. He knows where the original inhabitants went.

“Hux,” he says quietly. “We are not safe here.”  
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hux retorts. “You have whatever that _force_ thing is. I have my blaster. You already said the place was deserted. The only danger is that you irritate me to the point of—”  
Kylo leaps to his feet. Hux scuffles for his blaster. Hux aims his blaster at Kylo then lowers it as Kylo vanishes out the door. Kylo stands still, breathing hard, looking around, searching for any trace of the presence that lurks in the night fog.  
“Come back inside,” Hux says at his shoulder. “You’re getting spooked by shapes and shadows in the mist, nothing more.”

As if to prove his point, Hux takes a few steps away from Kylo. Even this close he is merely a shadow himself, swamped by the fog.  
“Fine,” Kylo says. “Whatever it is—”  
There’s a rush of movement and the fog around Hux swirls and for a fraction of a second Kylo can see it clearly. He bounds forwards, snarling, crackling lightsaber raised. Hux yells and darts away. There’s a curse and a thump, then silence. Fear starts nibbling at Kylo’s gut. Lightsaber still lending a flickering, red glow to the fog around him, he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

He finds Hux immediately. The brightest glow, beginning to fade. He yells and rushes forward, lightsaber swinging through fog that has turned to ice and falls as frost-sparkle on the dark shape on the ground.  
_NO!_  
He understands now what his mission is. He swings again, parting the fog, vapour rising crimson from the sputtering blade, and something lifts from Hux’s body and shrieks as it disperses into the darkness. Kylo extinguishes his lightsaber, hoists Hux up by the arms and stumbles backwards to their refuge.

Inside, the fire is reduced to an amber glow. Kylo sets Hux down and waves a few more broken shards of wood on top, willing it to catch quickly. He reaches his hand out towards Hux’s head and concentrates.  
_Please don’t make me go._  
_I hate you!_  
_Mam!_  
Kylo retreats after the lightest touch dissolves the bad dream, and Hux mumbles in his sleep.

Hux sits up when the last of the firewood crackles and spits as it catches. He shivers and pulls himself back into a ball, arms hugging his knees. He doesn’t move away this time when Kylo settles with his chest against his narrow back and his thighs either side of his hips. Kylo wraps his arms around Hux and settles his chin on Hux’s shoulder. “I don’t feel the cold as much as you do. You’re an annoying asshole but that’s not enough for me to want to kill you.” That seems to relax Hux and Kylo holds him a little tighter without meaning to. “Is that what you’re still afraid of?” Kylo asks.  
“It crossed my mind,” Hux says. “You’re like him, aren’t you?”  
“Yes,” Kylo replies. “He’s my Master.”  
“He’s too powerful,” Hux says so quietly it’s as if he’s afraid Snoke might overhear.  
“He has a lot to teach me,” Kylo says. “He says that one day I will be as powerful as he is.”  
“Then you will be too powerful too,” Hux replies with a resigned shrug.  
“Will you try to kill me then?” Kylo asks, smiling but only half-joking.  
Hux sighs again. “I hope I won’t have to.”

Kylo realises they’ve been communicating in whispers and murmurs. It feels intimate despite the rough surroundings. There’s something new coming from Hux, he realises after a few more minutes. His muscles are relaxing and his breathing slowing in preparation for genuine sleep. His head nods forward. Kylo does his best to arrange his outer robe on the floor without waking Hux, but Hux jerks awake and demands to know what’s going on.  
“We’ll be warmer if we lie here with your greatcoat over us,” Kylo says.  
Hux nods his understanding. He gets up and takes his greatcoat off. “You first,” he says, and Kylo lies down. Hux lies with his back to Kylo and pulls his coat over them. Kylo laughs softly, shakes his head and turns so that he can put his arms around Hux and pull him closer. Hux stiffens then makes himself relax.  
“You’ve never done this before, have you?” Kylo asks. “Slept with anyone, I mean.”  
”My opportunities have been limited,” Hux replies.  
“What, no pretty cadet-girls willing to warm your bunk?” Kylo feels himself blush at the question and steels himself for a range of possible answers.  
“No pretty cadet-boys or cadet-others either,” Hux says. “As the son of the commandant I was uniquely undesirable.”  
“I know what that’s like,” Kylo says before he can stop himself. He feels Hux stiffen again. “I was sent to a school where my uncle was in charge. I was treated with careful respect.”  
“So no young Jedi creeping into your bunk on cold nights?”  
Kylo sighs. “No.”

Kylo feels Hux shift and moves to match, knees bent to fit behind Hux’s, one foot hooked over Hux’s ankles to keep him in place. Hux is using Kylo’s bicep as a pillow and Kylo manoeuvres this arm slowly for comfort, bending the elbow to let his hand rest on Hux’s upper shoulder. Hux brings one hand up to clasp Kylo’s, as reassurance that the hand won’t move and the arm tighten, Kylo senses. “I promise you are safe with me,” Kylo says.

Kylo’s other arm is draped across Hux’s waist and Hux rests his arm on top. He doesn’t intend to fall asleep, but he wakes on his back with Hux lying half on top of him. The fire is dead and it’s still dark, but he’s warm enough. Hux is barely substantial and Kylo moves him a little, then freezes. Hux is awake.  
“Stop pretending to be asleep,” Kylo says. “Were you going for your blaster?”  
“No, you oaf,” Hux replies grumpily. “I was uncomfortable. Sorry I woke you.”  
“Uncomfortable?” Kylo hoists Hux fully on top of him. He realises when Hux’s hips meet his own. “Oh.”  
“Oh.” Hux echoes Kylo with a hint of sneer. “You seem to have a similar problem.”  
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kylo says. “You just happened to wake me from a very pleasant dream about... someone else.”  
“And I’m experiencing a perfectly normal physical reaction to being manhandled.”  
“So you like being manhandled?” Kylo says. He laughs and holds Hux firmly, rolling them both over so that Hux is under him. “Like that?”  
“Get off me, you nerf,” Hux says.  
“Tell me to get off again and I will,” Kylo replies. “But I think I found something we can teach each other.”

Hux is silent. He keeps eye contact with Kylo as he tilts his hips to thrust once. Kylo grins and grinds down against Hux. Then Hux’s hands are in his hair and he’s being pulled into a kiss that makes him feel like he’s being devoured. He can feel Hux’s desire and it’s intoxicating. No one has ever thought of him this way. Not that he was aware, anyway, and Hux has no defence against Kylo reading his emotional state. Kylo responds, kissing Hux with the same ferocity. They pull at each other’s clothing, then pull at their own when it’s too slow.

There’s little finesse. Hux’s hand feels good on Kylo’s cock and Kylo’s hand clasps Hux’s cock hard enough to make him yelp. They each laugh and adjust their grip until the other says it feels right. Kylo dips down for another kiss as they start to move. Softer this time. Lips barely touching, breathing harder, eyes closed, Hux comes first and the intensity of his climax pulls at the edges of Kylo’s mind, sending him into his orgasm too. Kylo flops over onto his side, one warm, solid hand on the crest of Hux’s hip. Next time Kylo wakes, Hux is standing at the doorway, looking out. He gets up and joins him.

Hux points at the ground. “Something happened here last night. We must’ve slept through it.”  
Kylo looks at the disturbed earth and the tramlines dragged into the crust by Hux’s heels.  
“That’s unusual,” Hux adds. “I am normally a very light sleeper.”  
“Very odd,” Kylo says with just a touch of sarcasm. “Are you ready to continue my training?”  
Hux points and Kylo follows his arm to see the dark shape of a shuttle descending on a shallow approach. They step back between the buildings to shelter from the grit thrown up by its landing, then dart out and onto the ramp. Inside, Hux sits opposite Kylo and smiles.  
“Well then, it appears I succeeded in my task and we are being extracted early.”  
Kylo huffs and shakes his head.  
“Unfortunately,” he says, thinking of the power he should have leached from the force-beast that tried to feed, lured by Hux’s force-blind and vulnerable life-force, “I failed in mine.”


End file.
